


Sunshine

by K4t3yK4t



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Dragon Age Quest: The Deep Roads Expedition, F/M, The Deep Roads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-01 23:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5225231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K4t3yK4t/pseuds/K4t3yK4t
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fenris stares at the bottle of wine on the table, though for once, he hasn’t touched it. He is too distracted, too deterred by the recent memories of the Deep Roads expedition. And what came of it…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I retain no claim of ownership over these characters, for they all belong to Bioware.

Fenris stares at the bottle of wine on the table, though for once, he hasn’t touched it. He is too distracted, too deterred by the recent memories of the Deep Roads expedition. And what came of it…

_He can still hear the way Hawke’s voice pitched when she turned to see Bethany’s Blighted eyes staring up at her from where she fell. He still heard her begging her sister to fight it, while cursing herself for not taking Anders with them. He was a Grey Warden, she said, he’d know what to do. The look on Hawke’s face when Bethany said she wouldn’t make it… And asked Hawke to kill her before the Blight took her._

_Never would he forget the sense of helplessness he’d felt then; he’d wanted to do something to help the young mage girl who’d tried so hard to make him feel welcome, despite his acrid rejections. Never before had he wanted to help a mage. The dwarf called her “Sunshine”…Her brightness had dimmed the moment they stepped foot in those passages._

_Hawke had gone through with it with her own dagger. She had slumped against Bethany’s body, as if she too had died, and the howl of agony that tore from her throat filled the chamber. She didn’t move until Varric coaxed her with soft words and gentle nudges to rise, lest the Darkspawn be upon them all. Hawke rose to her feet, and for once, she wasn’t smiling, and no jokes fell from her lips in reply. Fenris cringed at the hollow look to her eyes and the mechanical nod of her assent. They had to leave._

_Fenris approached the corpse of the girl, and looked down at her for a long while, fighting with himself. The Lyrium in his veins quickened and burned, responding to the fading mana. He could see the way the taint had crept its way through her, black veins stark against ashen skin, eyes staring pale, unseeing. He stared, but he couldn’t bring himself to hate her, not like this. Perhaps he could do something after all._

_“Fenris?” Hawke’s voice was thick, wary. She had seen the way he reacted to mages, and this had, after all, been her sister. But Bethany had been different… Just as Hawke was. Wordlessly, Fenris crouched, gathering the corpse into his arms and lifting it effortlessly. When he turned, both Hawke and the dwarf were staring at him as though he’d just grown a second head. Perhaps he had; he was wondering why he did this, even as he did it._

_“She deserves to be free of this place.” He replied after a few silent minutes. He didn’t see Varric’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise; he was focused on Hawke, and on the way her eyes widened, still crystalline with sorrow. The struggle she underwent to master herself, and finally, the short, sharp nod that had the group moving again._

_The first breath of fresh air was sweet on his tongue. But they were not yet done. He stood still, cradling Bethany’s body, while Hawke and Varric gathered dead brush from the sparse mountainside they’d come out on. There was enough, after some ranging, to create a pyre. Once it was constructed, Fenris came forward and laid Bethany down with more gentleness than he’d ever given her in life._

_He retreated as Hawke advanced, and watched as she arranged her sister’s limbs to appear as if she were sleeping. The Chant of Light tumbled from Hawke’s lips, and her hands shook. From the way her voice thickened and cracked, the way her shoulders rigidly held, he knew she was weeping once more. Fire was harder to come by. They had, up until now, relied upon Bethany’s fire spells. It took longer, but finally, the pyre was ablaze, ashes and sparks sailing up toward the heavens._

_“May you rest at the Maker’s side…” Hawke whispered, the last of the litany barely audible over the rush as the fire eagerly consumed brush and clothing and hair. Fenris watched the pyre, and it startled him when he turned to see Hawke watching him with a curious look in her sorrow-reddened eyes. “Thank you, Fenris, for doing that.” She said, her voice hoarse and strained._

_“You didn’t… I know how you feel about mages.” Behind her, Varric was watching them both with that disquietingly owlish look that meant he noticed something they hadn’t yet. Not knowing how to respond otherwise, Fenris merely reached up and clasped Hawke’s shoulder, and said firmly, but without his usual abrasiveness:_

_“We should move on.”_

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at a DA2 anything. I know Fenris is a bit ooc but honestly I like thinking that his rage hasn't completely overruled his compassion. Besides that, I don't like thinking of Beth getting left in the Deep Roads to be 'Spawn chow.


End file.
